Page 26 of RAKEish

CHAPTER 10

The next evening, after another session in which the Glam Team transformed her looks, Lux met Scott outside of Naked Runway. Not that he’d noticed her yet—he was on the phone. Day three of their eight-day journey was already here. While she waited for him to finish, she covertly checked him out. Dressed in all black, he was by far the best-looking man she’d ever gone on a date with. Not that tonight was a date, but she had no idea what else to call it.

Laughter spilled out of him as he spoke animatedly. Not the sign of a man who’d quietly started panicking after he realized there was no way he would win their challenge. A conclusion she had assumed he would have come to after realizing last night that she was a water-drinking barfly with no game whatsoever.

He would have had a better shot at winning had he gone along with her idea of her landing a professor-like man instead of a rake. As it was, Scott was a sure loser.

A rake falling for Lux wouldn’t happen. Made over or not, she just wasn’t the type a bad boy fell in love with at first year let alone first sight. The pizzazziest thing about her was her freaking name, and God knew she’d never lived up to its potential.

Well, if not God, Mother knew.

Wearing shades and smiling as he listened to whomever was on the other end of his call, he didn’t appear the least bit unnerved. Quite the opposite. The confidence oozing from his every pore practically shouted he knew something she didn’t. Did Frankie have an ace in the hole for her star reporter? One that would guarantee his win? Like a patsy on the backburner ready to declare love to Lux should the need arise?

The thought caused anger to glob her throat like she’d swallowed an oversized jawbreaker. She tried to clear her throat, and the noise came out sounding like a creature about to attack.

Scott turned at the sound. “Whoa.” His gaze did a slow intake of her…all of her. “I do like a woman in black leather pants and heels,” he said when their gazes finally met again.

“Of course you do,” she said in a weird voice. She cleared her throat again.

“Because you think I’m shallow?” he mused.

When she’d told Isabella that tonight’s lesson would be on pickup lines, the perky blonde had insisted Luxury wear skintight leather pants. “Well, there’s that, and according to Isabella, they are a nonverbal pickup line that work on all men…not just the bottom feeders.”

“She’s not wrong.” Scott pulled at the collar of his turtleneck.

“Really?” Lux said, part incredulous, part not surprised. “They are as cliché as a stripper at a bachelor party.”

His chuckle was all the rise she got out of him. “My intent was for us to walk to our destination, but I dare say your feet are not yet accustomed to those shoes. Shall I hail us a taxi? I gave my driver the evening off.”

That was uncharacteristically aware for a rake. “I’ll be fine. Besides, I need to practice my hip sways.” She’d begged Isabella to provide alternative footwear for tonight’s ensemble, but she’d informed Lux that no fashion icon would be caught pairing Givenchy leather pants and an Isabella P. Chance bodysuit with flats.

“Luckily, Velvet Vice isn’t far from here,” Scott said.

“I’ve never heard of the place.” She fell into step next to him.

“It’s an establishment Frankie chose. I’ve been there a couple of times. The clientele is interesting.”

“How so?” With each step she took, she practiced pushing her hips out left and right.

“Think James Bond meets Dirty Harry.”

“Techie, billionaire badasses meet thuggish, blue-collar badasses,” Lux said sarcastically, and then stumbled when one of her hip punches landed against his body. “No stress there.”

“You’ll do fine.” He held out the crook of his arm.

Lux reluctantly took it. Her mental energy would be better spent on running through her prepared pickup line. “Lay it out for me, Scott. What else is on the agenda prepared by Frankie?”

“She has me spending tonight and tomorrow night being your professor of seduction—”

“That’s a fancy title,” she teased, even as she recalled their kiss. Would there be more lessons in that arena?

“The final three nights will consist of you going on dates.”

“With whom?”

“Hopefully men you’ve won over tonight and tomorrow night.”

“And if there are none?”

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